Sony firmware for E-mount lenses, NEX-7, SLT-A37, A57, A65 and A77

Sony has announced a series of firmware updates for its cameras and lenses, including the addition of Hybrid-AF compatibility for key E-mount lenses and the option to disable the movie record button on cameras including the NEX-7. The NEX-7 also gets an increase in the range over which you can set exposure bracketing - the ±3EV range it now offers is something a users have been calling for. Firmware v1.01 also promises to improve the responsiveness of post-shot image review. Further updates for the SLT-A37, A57, A65 and A77 also offer the option to disable the movie button and provide lens correction for a broader range of lenses.

Dont you miss the good old days when disposable cameras cost $18 not $700? But lets face it it is our fault for buying a new camera every year. I got the Sony5N and later that year the NEX7 and was exited to see the NEX6 being released. How stupid! I am determined to keep my gear as is, master it and not "upgrade" any more! And if I hit the movie button by mistake its mostly my fault not necessarely Sony's.

How are any of these cameras disposable? With the same logic, all smartphones are disposable? No. Annual and incremental "refreshes" are the norm now. You don't have to buy a new camera. If you chase after every piece of new equipment, then yup "how stupid".

I have always liked Sony products.As far as cameras are concerned, I already own Sony DSC-HX7v & 9v ( bought them for my kids ) and NEX-5N and A37. Now , I am very disappointed that Sony DID NOT TRY TO FIX NEX-5N VIDEO BUTTON ISSUE AS THEY DID FOR NEX-7. I am very pleased with NEX-5N except for video button placement which has bothered me ever since I bought it 6 months ago and is still under Sony's warranty.The camera is about a year old and by any standard is almost a new camera model.If sony is in the business of keeping customers , I strongly recommend they extend their firmware update to NEX-5n and any other model that has the same issue.Customers are not responsible for MISTAKES THAT SONY ENGINEERS HAVE COMMITTED. I hope Sony listens and don't loose their faithful customers which is hard to come by nowadays.

SUCH IS LIFE. OTHER COMPANYS DUE THE SAME. THE OLD IS OUT AND THE NEW IS IN. OLYMPUS IS ONE AND THE OTHER IS PANASONIC BOTH DROP OLD MODELS. (TOOBAD IF MY CAPS STAY ONE , THE DON'T COME OF FOR ANYONE. SO THERE!

Sadly, the NEX-5N has been neglected - not that a big surprise, as it has been superseeded by later models, but still ...

Things being what they are, I've just sold the Sony lenses, as I now use mine mostly for panoramas, even if I have two really nice lenses for it (the Zeiss 1.8/24 and the Sigma 19 + adapters for Nikon and Pentax lenses).

For the rest of my shooting I have turned to Nikon - the D600 is a really a nice video camera ;-)!

The update just barely begins to address all the user interface idiosyncrasies that the Nex7 has. The update IS appreciated but gosh, a few more tweaks to the use interface could have been implemented in this firmware release. It will be nice not to always discover that the camera is in video record mode.

What about my A55? Its not listed for the update!!! It seems like Sony just abandoned it once it became known that it overheats in video mode. There was no attempt to fix that problem with a firmware update.....or a recall! The A55 has better low light performance than even the newer models and the smaller body is appealing to many. Does anyone know if the firmware update will work on the A55?

Night has fallen again. It's been 16 hours since I upgraded my NEX-7's firmware. I'm holed up in a cheap motel near the border. The door is barricaded. The shades are drawn. All the lights are off. The room is illuminated only by the fluckering of the tv set. I've been chain smoking and drinking all day. On the table before me is a fifth of gin, my Glock, my NEX-7, and a laptop. The phone rang for awhile a little earlier. I didn't pick it up. I was afraid it was somebody from the press - or worse. I haven't been able to sleep at all. Can't really say why. The upgrade went smoothly. But something still doesn't feel right. People want to know what I think. To me, at face value, it seems kind of incidental. Somebody said NEX-7 owners are rejoicing today. But I don't know about that. I just don't know.

As long as it only disables the function by choice so the movie button is not activated accidentally. One of the reasons that I bought the NEX-5N is that it records high-quality videos, much better than many camcorders out there. Hybrid cameras, like the NEX-5N, are extremely useful.

Nex-7 owner: I'm a programmer myself and I know that changes to the user interface are the simplest thing to do when it comes to software development. This is not about creating new functionality for the camera, it's about proper options for existing features and access to them!

I understand that Sony sees features that would make Nex-7 shooting experience just a bit closer to "professional grade" as a threat to it's SLT market. There are no technical difficulties with implementing software ergonomics in the product. It's a pure policy issue of the company: we will not upgrade the product so we can sell the next one and we will on purpose strip down the features of a really expensive camera just so (we think) we have better sales of the big SLT brothers.

After all those sour words I would also like to thank Sony for the update because I already thought that it's a lost cause. Please let cameras with great potential be as they should and stop limiting them (and the successors)!

poor update on the nex for manual focus shooters. Still randomly moves center focus point off center when going into video mode. No spot focus on video mode. Spot focus on camera mode has no indication of where center focus point is when camera is set with af/mf on hold mode. Histogram does not accurately represent metering when in spot metering mode. Lots of bugs that haven't been fixed. But, never-the-less, I still love my nex 7. Just wish they had better photographers working at the company that would fix these functions.

Maybe they are discontinued, like my A55... But I think that a serious provider should support the old models a bit more. Heck, my A55 is still in guarantee period, and I would even pay for the extended bracketing (and focus peaking, and an indication of the ISO chosen when in auto-ISO modes).

1. If you're going to increase bracketing flexibility, why not use all 1/3 or 1/2 stops? (But I can live with the improvement)

2. I still need to dismiss the "Movie button is disabled" message to shoot. This is/was an extremely responsive camera. Why slow it down? (I know, too many customers would complain that their movie button wasn't working). This is a high end camera, and Sony's customers should know how to use it.

So, I ordered this camera 1 year ago, finally received it 6 months ago, and this is the piddling software update they cobble together in that time...?

May be I'm not so sure, but after update the NEX-7 firmware, I've noticed that there is AF-C (AF-Continuous) mode appeared which previously was available only with LAEA-2 lens adapter. Can anyone confirm about it?

I am mortified the NEX5N is just trampled over and doesnt get a freshen up. Almost a great camera with some duff firmware that could easily be fixed and should have been ages ago . ESPECIALLY the stupid avoid inadvertently starting movie recording button, better exposure control settings, some tidier menu logic between screens. But now the new NEXs' are out I suppose the 5N will be consigned to the no support bin - a disgrace and probably a reason for me NOT to buy another of their camera products.

I also have a NEX-5N and I am very disappointed that Sony didn't release a firmware update for all the older NEX cameras. Since the original NEX3 & 5 were launched, the crippled auto-braketing option was one of the major problems reported by users and reviewers.So it's unfair to the rest of us to give this option only to the NEX-7 cameras. I really hope Sony will make a firmware update for us too.

Well I hope they bring out a bracketing update for all models; just because I chose a NEX-C3 over the 5, doesn't mean I should loose out should it ... for what is simply a software update and my biggest bugbear with the NEX range (and the reason why I still keep my Samsung NX11 as its bracketing function is damned good!)

I guess we have to be grateful that Sony pretends to be listening at last, but this update for the NEX-7 is disappointing nonetheless.

The bracketing is still useless because you can't combine it with delayed shutter or remote, so you can't use it with long exposure times on a tripod. Have these people never taken pictures themselves?

And why they didn't take the opportunity to let the user re-assign the movie button instead of merely disabling it?

I guess it would have been hard work. This update looks like a cheap and half-assed quick fix, the sort of thing that I'd come up with after one afternoon to pacify the customer "until the real thing comes along."

Having had to wait almost one year for this "update" doesn't elevate my opinion of Sony very much.

please read carefully. it's not about shutter speed as such but about delayed shutter or remote shutter release. both help a lot when it comes to long time exposures and those modes are not possible on nex cameras together with bracketing.

*You* can bracket all that you want using those crazy things at the ends of your arms, meaning that the options really are: remote OR delay OR camera bracketing OR remote with operator bracketing OR delay with operator bracketing OR operator bracketing with remote delay. All equally feasible, particularly with bracketed long exposures.

He's talking about AUTO bracketing. He's NOT saying bracketing can't be done. Its no longer auto bracketing if you do it manually. So for him, the feature (*auto* bracketing) is useless for how he is using his camera. Giving him a lecture on how to bracket manually is kind of pointless since I assume he's doing that right now...

If he's using a remote then its for a reason: it means he doesn't want or can't touch his camera in that situation. I assume its because he wants to eliminate the chance of shifting the camera slightly. Using auto bracketing means your frames are closer together, which reduces the chance of something changing in the scene. Being able to combine those two elements is very useful to many people.

It's six in the morning. Just got through installing the new firmware. I was a little worried, because I live in rural area, but the operation went smoothly enough. Think I'm gonna have some breakfast pizza now, and then maybe go out and do some exposure bracketing.

Samsung makes serious cameras OMG...LOLOLOLOL Galaxy camera and a few NX cameras, Yes dream on my friend, No full frame camera to talk about or descent Raw conversion, seriously what are you smoking.Not to mention that the NEX cameras outsell Samsung NX in about every country including Korea

I just have trouble understanding what some people are thinking when they buy things. You bought a camera with ±1EV bracketing right? Do you go to a car lot and pick up a Dodge pickup figuring the manufacturer will install extra cup holders later? Because without extra cup holders, the truck is obviously just an expensive toy.

Making an excuse for Sony is not answering an unasked question. It'd just be nice to see them support all of the DSLT cameras they release, rather than pick and choose. And it's not a cheap, low-end camera, just at the lower end of their premium range of interchangeable lens cameras. I'm not talking about a DSC-T5 released in 2005, the A35 was only released in mid-2011.

Just saying it'd be nice to have more extended support, rather than so much built-in obsolescence through not updating just released cameras with easily added features (sometimes they would be difficult to add, obviously, but often not). Not saying they *should*, or there's no cost to show loyalty to existing customers, just that it would be nice.

but having the option to go up to 3200 in Auto ISO is needed by some people, and with cameras, is all about options. If you don't want to work more, you're talking about yourself, but some people want to use that option. Also, on some cameras there is a way to select the limits of AUTO ISO, so having the option to select that, is prefered instead of just limiting it to a certain amount of sensor sensibility just because you don't want to work more in PP.

Things that still need fixing on NEX7, or this is more like my wish list:-- wake up faster, especially when using legeacy lenses and third party lenses like Sigma. - fix the sleep mode for EVF, ie. it doesn't go to sleep even if the camera has been idle for a long time.- ability to load new applications onto the camera without using wifi, eg via SD card or USB- ability to use soft key B (the bottom key) for the customised functions instead of soft key C, as people prefer to assign C to change the shooting mode instead- customise one of the top navi dials into the shooting mode- allow the setting to be changable on the LCD display page that shows all the camera settings.

What the hell? Why would you get D800 just for video when there are much better video cameras? Even GH2 has better quality video than D800, but for less money (D800 + 3 new lenses), you could have bought FS100 and used your current e-mount and A-mount lenses with the adapter.

^ this. FS100 is most obvious choice. Even used one beats crap out of D800 in many aspects (including support for pro video accessories and decent screen instead of struggling with black viewfinder and horrible rear LCD live view mode).